Baghdad Adieu

Iraqi poet Salah Al Hamdani has lived a remarkable life. The author of some forty books in French and Arabic he began life as a child laborer with little or no education. As a political prisoner under Saddam Hussein he learned to read and write Arabic once he was released form prison he continued to work against the regime ultimately at age twentyone choosing exile in Paris. He now writes in French but he remains a poet of exile of memory wounded by the loss of his homeland and those dear to him. This landmark collection gathers thirtyfive years of his writings from his first volume in Arabic Memory of Embers to his latest collection written originally in French For You I Dream. It offers Englishlanguage readers their first substantial overview of Al Hamdanis work fired by the fight against injustice and shot through with longing for the home to which he can never return.